Jets owner Woody Johnson pulled out all the stops to recruit Aaron Rodgers.
When the two met at Rodgers’ home in Malibu last offseason, along with other members of the Jets’ brain trust, Johnson came bearing a unique gift.
“He gave me some honey from the queen’s garden,” Rodgers said of the former US ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Come again? Honey from Queen Elizabeth II’s garden?
“It is a cool gift,” Rodgers, who has long been a history buff, said.
The quarterback revealed Johnson’s gesture in an upcoming biography of the four-time NFL MVP, “Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers”, written by former Post columnist Ian O’Connor.
According to The Royal Family, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, was very proud of the honey produced by Buckingham Palace beehives — so much so that she gave a jar of it to Pope Francis during their first meeting in 2014.
Nine years later, Johnson, who was the US ambassador to the United Kingdom during the Trump administration, used that honey to break the ice with Rodgers, who at the time had become disgruntled after 18 years with the Packers.
The Jets owner was joined by his brother and vice chairman Christopher Johnson, GM Joe Douglas, head coach Robert Saleh, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and team president Hymie Elhai for the visit with Rodgers and his agent David Dunn of Athletes First.
The March 2023 meeting convinced the quarterback that he should make the Jets his preferred location in a trade.
Rodgers, 39 at the time, had decided against retiring after taking a four-day darkness retreat in the wilderness of southern Oregon.
Christopher Johnson, reputed as the more affable of the two brothers, arrived in Malibu ahead of the other team officials and had a one-on-one conversation with Rodgers that was deemed helpful to the Jets.
Consequently, one prominent NFL figure with ties to the Johnsons wondered if it was intentional that the friendlier brother made the first impression.
“It’s genius if it was their grand plan,” Rodgers said, referring to the idea that the Jets sent Christopher for the first meeting as deliberate strategy, in the book.
He had returned to his house early from a workout to find the Jets’ vice chairman waiting for him.
“We had twenty minutes, just him and I,” Rodgers said. “I love Chris, I really do. I feel like I’ll have a lifetime friendship with him regardless of what happens.”
Rodgers told O’Connor that he spent much of the five-hour summit talking to Saleh inside his beachside villa while the other participants sat outside on a deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
“[Woody] didn’t say a whole lot,” Rodgers said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of ‘The Woody Show.’ But once he talked, he said all the right things. He wanted to win. He was willing to spend the money and get the right guys, and I enjoyed him. I like Woody.”
Rodgers made a point in the book about the location of the Jets meeting — the estate he reportedly purchased with then-girlfriend Danica Patrick, a racing star, for $28 million in 2019.
“I didn’t buy it with anybody,” Rodgers said.
